Agent Programming Extensions Relying on a Component-based Platform

The information science …, 2002

Optimal Information Modeling Techniques

The use of intelligent agents is on the rise, fueled by the unprecedented growth in the internet and web based applications. Consequently, agent-oriented software is becoming large and complex. To support a systematic development of such software, an agent-oriented software development methodology is necessary. This chapter focuses on the modeling phase of agent-oriented software life cycle and, presents an approach for agent modeling consisting of Agent Elicitation, Intra, and Inter Agent modeling methods. Agent Elicitation deals with identifying and extracting agents from “classes” in the real world. Intra Agent Modeling involves expressing agent characteristics æ Goal, Belief, Plan and Capability æ whereas, Inter Agent modeling incorporates agent mobility and communication in a multi- agent system.

The Journal of Object Technology, 2003

Agent technology is a new approach of Distributed Artificial Intelligence to implement autonomous entities driven by beliefs, goals, capabilities and plans, and other agency properties such as adaptation, interaction, and mobility. Software agents are the focus of considerable research in the artificial intelligence community, but not much has been done in the field of software engineering. In this paper, we present an object-oriented framework for building software agents in a distributed environment. The design of the framework also allows an easy mapping of the models developed in the analysis and design phase of the Gaia Methodology to object-oriented code. We believe that objectoriented framework technology can reduce not only the development time but also the complexity of implementing multi-agent systems. We present an instantiated application that uses this framework to illustrate an implementation.

2002

Abstract Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) is an emerging paradigm within industry that offers much potential of the management of the increasing levels of complexity inherent within modern software systems. For this paradigm to gain widespread acceptance, it is vital that we develop comprehensive frameworks that support the development and deployment of agent-oriented applications.

2000

The use of modelling abstractions to map from items in the real-world to objects in the computational domain is useful both for the effective implementation of abstract problem solutions and for the management of software complexity. This paper discusses the new approach of agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE), which uses the notion of an autonomous agent as its fundamental modelling abstraction. For the AOSE approach to be fully exploited, software engineers must be able to gain leverage from an agent software ...

Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, 2001

2000

ABSTRACT Agent-oriented computing is emerging as a powerful new paradigm that might be the cornerstone for the next generation of software like e-business systems. Naturally, defining accurate development methodologies for such emerging systems is becoming one promising area in software development. Up to now, software development techniques have been traditionally implementation-driven in the sense that the programming paradigm of the day dictated the design and requirements analysis techniques used.

2007

This paper proposes a new taxonomy for agents and their programming languages and platforms. This taxonomy is based not only on properties that agents exhibit, but also on the deliberative control flow that they follow. After analysing the main characteristics of each class of agent, we describe the relevant languages and platforms included in each class. The article compares these different classes, highlighting their main advantages and drawbacks, and suggesting some enhancements which could improve current agent-oriented programming languages.

Multiagent Systems, Artificial Societies, and Simulated Organizations, 2004

This chapter presents a selection of current research works on agent technology which are focused on the development of Multi-Agent Systems. The purpose of this chapter is to guide developers through existing theories, methods, and software that can be applied in each stage of a development. However, this guide is not exhaustive due the amount of agent-related research works. Thus authors have added references to consult other information sources and complement the information given here. Readers are encouraged to consult these external references in order to obtain a more accurate view of the field.

Multiagent Systems, Artificial Societies, and Simulated Organizations, 2004

Software agents are increasingly being used as building blocks of complex software systems. In this paper we discuss the benefits and the drawbacks that a developer faces when choosing agents for the realization of a new system, instead of a more mature technology such as software components. In particular, we first compare agents to components and then highlight the differences and similarities engendered by the metaphors and abstractions that each provides. Then, we concentrate our comparison on reusability because of general agreement that reusability is one of the most important features to consider when adopting a development technology. We exploit agent-oriented concepts to define formally an asymptotic level of reusability, and we show how agents and components approximate it. The result of such a comparison is that agents are intrinsically more reusable than components.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011

The use of the component-based approach to develop largescale information systems has become increasingly prominent over the past decade. However, there is a lack of established frameworks that cover the life cycle of component-based system development. This paper proposes a formalization of the process for component-based software development through the use of the agent paradigm. To this end, components are considered as low-level functional providers integrated into the software project through an agent architecture subject to monitoring -i.e. checking constraints -in order to determine the proper advancement of the software project. The use of agents typically allows a logical independence: the business logic is built separated from components making their integration process more flexible. The component selection is performed on two levels: components are selected on the basis of actors' intentions at the analysis level, and of their functional performances at the runtime level. The process is thus highly iterative and formal constraints are provided to monitor the iterative progression on a management point of view.

2001

Abstract We are developing a methodology, called Tropos, for building agent-oriented software systems. The methodology covers five software development phases: early requirements analysis, late requirements analysis, architectural design, detailed design, and implementation. Throughout, the concepts offered by i* are used to model both the stakeholders in the system's environment, and the system itself.

2011

Abstract: The notion of agent more and more appears in different contexts of computer science, often with different meanings. The main acceptation is the AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Distributed AI one, where agents are essentially exploited as a technique to develop special-purpose systems exhibiting some kind of intelligent behavior. In this paper, we introduce a further perspective, shifting the focus from AI to computer programming and programming languages.

2006

Several concerns in the development of multi-agent systems (MASs) cannot be represented in a modular fashion. In general, they inherently affect several system modules and cannot be explicitly captured based on existing software engineering abstractions. These crosscutting concerns encompass internal agent properties and systemic properties, such as learning, code mobility, error handling, and context-awareness.

2001

With the increasing importance of complex software systems in the software industry, the need for using agent technologies to develop large-scale commercial and industrial software systems is growing rapidly. Such systems are complex and there is a pressing need for system modeling techniques to support reliable, maintainable and extensible design. G-Nets are a type of Petri net defined to support modeling of a system as a set of independent and loosely-coupled modules. In this paper, we first introduce an extension of G-Nets, agent-based G-Net, as a generic model for agent design. Then to progress from an agent-based design model to an agent-oriented model, new mechanisms to support inheritance modeling are introduced. To illustrate our formal modeling technique for multi-agent systems, an example of an agent family in electronic commerce is provided.